GAME REPORT

Serbia & Montenegro Too Strong For Bulgaria

Reigning U18 women champions Serbia & Montenegro took another step towards retaining that title with a strong performance against Bulgaria on the opening day of the quarter-final round.

The difference in class between the two sides was highlighted by their preliminary round performances.

Serbia & Montenegro won their three games by an average margin of 30 points, while Bulgaria scraped through to the quarters after a last ditch victory against Poland.

Jelena Milovanovic

To their credit, Bulgaria stayed in contention for most of the first half.

Serbia & Montenegro's first run came at the end of the first quarter thanks to some great play from center Jelena Milovanovic. First she hit a jump shot and then followed that up with a steal and fast-break assist to Sonja Petrovic which completed a 6-0 run and saw Serbia & Montenegro take a 19-13 lead into the break.

Bulgaria managed to limit the defecit to single figures in the second period, but Serbia & Montenegro broke free in the third behind some strong outside shooting. They buried four three-pointers in third period to outscore Bulgaria 19-14.

With a 12-point cushion at the start of the fourth quarter, Serbia & Montenegro eased to victory, 75-57.

Despite the 18-point margin of victory, head coach Zeljko Vukicevic was not entirely satisfied with his team's performance.

"I'm not really happy with the way we played today, especially with our turnovers and transition game, he said.

"Hopefully we can play better tomorrow against Sweden, who are a big suprise here."

Milovanovic finished with a game high 19 points for Serbia & Montenegro, while Petrovic tallied 14 points and 14 rebounds.